Dana Concert Band will play Carnegie Nov. 27 with National Festival Chorus

YOUNGSTOWN

Carnegie Hall is the top classical music venue in North America, and playing there is an honor usually reserved for the world’s top artists.

But a group of students from the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University will get to experience what it’s like to play one of the world’s great stages.

The 55-piece Dana Concert Band will play Carnegie on Nov. 27 as part of a National Festival Chorus performance.

Faculty and student musicians at the school have been abuzz since last week, when they got word.

Prof. Stephen Gage, director of bands and orchestra at the Dana, said the invitation came after the ensemble caught the ear of Manhattan Concert Productions — the company staging the performance — at a state music conference in February.

Manhattan productions contacted Gage in May to inquire if the band would be interested. Gage said yes, and set about to secure approval and financial backing for the trip.

The concert will center around the National Festival Chorus, an honors choir of singers from throughout the country. Two orchestras will take part in the event: the Dana, and one from Florida Gulf Coast University.

The Dana contingent will leave by bus in the early morning hours of Nov. 25. It will spend Thanksgiving Day in New York, and then attend a dress rehearsal on the morning of Nov. 27. The concert is at 8 p.m. that night.

Gage said his band will have 30 minutes on stage, and will play a set written by contemporary New York composers: “A Short Ride On a Fast Machine,” by John Adams; “Radiant Joy” by Steven Bryant; and “The Frozen Cathedral” by John Mackey.

Funding is coming from YSU, private donations, and local foundations.